"Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation... The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!" Psalm 146:1-3, 10
I love that the first and last phrase of this psalm of David is the same. "Praise the Lord!" Great chapter to read!
If you're an avid reader of my blog (which may just be God), you know that this summer has been one of incredible fruit in my life. Never have I grown in this way, felt so blessed, and praised God so much. It feels like I'm falling in love. It's a summer of love for sure.
Anyway, despite my own growth, I've found perhaps deeper satisfaction in joy in seeing the women around me grow. God is working miracles in a few women close to me and it's been the greatest blessing ever to get to be one small instrument in God's plan for their lives.
This week in particular I've come home after a few conversations with various girls and I've literally walked into my room absolutely beaming, shut the door, and just tilted my head back, hands in the air, shouting, "Praise God! Praise God!"
The same thing, literally, happened tonight, for maybe the third time this week, when it hit me. Why am I saying, "Praise God" and not "praise You?" I'm all alone. I'm not talking to anyone else. I'm treating God as if He's an omniscient being that I can't talk to. I just have to talk about Him, in the third person.
The beautiful thing is that I have a relationship with the Lord and I can talk to Him. When I am literally overcome with praise I can personally offer that praise to the creator of the universe.
It's nothing big, just a simple conviction I had tonight that I've been up too late thinking about. Through an outreach this weekend I spent 2 hours sharing with one woman what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus, making parallels and answering questions about this concept and our relationships with people... and then I don't apply it to my own life.
Why talk about God to an empty room, when I can talk to God in His presence?
And, to share. This song has been on the radio lately and I just love it. It's a little cheesier than I usually like, but the message is good and reminds me of some of what I've been learning about lately in what a relationship with God really looks like. Enjoy.
Thanks for this post, Heather! Love the song and the message it presents. The Lord is using you in incredible ways, some of which you may not realize. The subtleties of welcoming me ever so graciously to hang out with your friends and each of them making me feel so very welcome and my observation of Christian women conversing about the appearances of anger in the Bible as naturally as another may speak of the latest gossip, the Lord has blessed me greatly through friendship with you. (And those instances are just from one evening!) Thank you for being a positive, Christian influence to those around you. Friends like you are hard to come by and I feel truly blessed to call you friend. :) Love you, Sister!
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it Brittney! And praise God (since I'm talking to you and not Him, lol) that He's able to use me. I have loved having you around and hope you continue to do so! It's been a huge blessing getting to know you as well, and it's exciting to know we have plenty of time to continue building this friendship. :) Let's get together soon and talk about how we're "breaking free," deal? Love you!
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